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Imagining a Right to Housing, Lying in the Interstices

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Imagining a Right to Housing, Lying in the Interstices Pace University DigitalCommons@Pace Pace Law Faculty Publications School of Law 2012 Imagining a Right to Housing, Lying in the Interstices Shelby D. Green Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, Housing Law Commons, and the Human Rights Law Commons Recommended Citation Shelby D. Green, Imagining a Right to Housing, Lying in the Interstices, 19 Geo. J. on Poverty L. & Pol’y 393 (2012), http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty/845/. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at DigitalCommons@Pace. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pace Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Pace. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy Volume XIX, Number 3, SummerSummer 2012 Imagining a Right to Housing, LyingLying inin the Interstices Shelby D. Green* "[TJhe"[T]he majestic quality of thethe law ...... prohibits thethe wealthy as well as the poor from sleeping under the bridges,frombridges,from begging in the streets, and from stealing bread. ,,\ I I.I. INTRODUCTION In this quotation is the notion that the law affords the same legal protections to all persons in making their life choices, regardless of their station in life. Also implicit in this quotation is the notion that the poor possess the autonomy to make choices-that they may choose to sleep under bridges instead of in conventional housing.housing?2 The latter suggestion is an uncomfortable one and prompts the question whether the state has some obligation to facilitate the making of those life choices, particularly with respect to a place to live. 3 In the last two decades, the * Associate Professor of Law, Pace University School of Law. J.DJ.D.. .. Georgetown University Law Center, B.S. Towson State University. ©@ 2012, Shelby D. Green. 1. ANATOLE FRANCE, LE Lys ROUGE 87 (1905). 2. France's cynical comment on the seeming indifference of the law as to those lacking economic resources has proved enlightening in a number of other contexts. See e.g., Joy Gordon, The Concept of Human Rights: The History and Meaning of its Politicization, 23 BROOKLYN J. INT'L L. 689, 723-724 (1998) (citing Anatole France and explaining that "Under the dominant conception, political equality is purely formal; the factfact thatthat all citizens of a certain age have the right to hold public office does not mean that substantively they have the means toto do so. Political equality-the formal equality of all citizens inin relation to government and to law--doeslaw-does not entail economic equality-substantively having the means to exercise one's political right."); Cheryl I. Harris, Symposium, The Constitution Of Equal Citizenship For A Good Society: Equal Treatment And The Reproduction Of Inequality, 69 FoRDHAMFORDHAM L. REv. 1753, 1756 n.7n.7 (2001) (speaking(speaking on how equal protection can bebe violated and stating that "So itit was with the majestic equality of French law, which Anatole France described as forbidding rich and poor alike toto sleep under thethe bridges of Paris ....... As the Supreme Court observed inin JennessJenness v. Fortson, 'sometimes'sometimes the greatest discriminationdiscrimination can lie in treatingtreating thingsthings thatthat are different as though they were exactly alike'"alike"' (quoting LAURENCE TRIBE,TRiBE, AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAwLAW 1438-39 (2d ed., 1988) (citation omitted));omitted»; Thomas Ross, The Rhetoric of Poverty: Their Immorality,Immorality, Our Helplessness, 79 GEO. L.J. 1499,14991499, 1499 n.2 (1991) (citing Anatole France and suggestingsuggesting thatthat "When the Court ignoresignores the differencesdifferences between people inin poverty and thosethose notnot in poverty, the result can be especially pernicious rhetoric."). 3. See Sheila Crowley, The Affordable Housing Crisis: Residential Mobility of Poor FamiliesFamilies and School Mobility of Poor Children, 7272 J. NEGRO EDUC. 22, 23 (2003) (describing(describing in starkstark termsterms the detrimental effects of unaffordable or inadequateinadequate housing, including having less fundsfunds available for other necessities, includingincluding food and medical care,care, and havinghaving to move inin with other family or friends in small spaces). 393 HeinOnline -- 19 Geo. J. on Poverty L. & Pol'y 393 2012 394394 TheThe GeorgetownGeorgetown JournalJournal onon PovertyPoverty LawLaw & Policy [Vol.[Vol. XIXXIX lacklack ofof affordable housing has reachedreached worrisomeworrisome proportions.proportions.44 As housinghousing becomesbecomes lessless affordable,affordable, itit becomesbecomes lessless available.available.55 Households withwith the lowestlowest incomesincomes feelfeel thisthis crisis mostmost acutely.acutely.66 If housinghousing werewere regardedregarded as aa fundamentalfundamental right,right, shouldshould itit imposeimpose burdensburdens upon thethe state, not only toto refrainrefrain fromfrom interferinginterfering with access andand retention,retention, but also toto ensure thatthat housing isis available and affordable?affordable? Housing wouldwould bebe regardedregarded asas a fundamental rightright ifif itit werewere toto bebe consideredconsidered an inextricableinextricable component of liberty. liberty. Then, it wouldwould alsoalso be a political rightright as guaranteedguaranteed byby our Constitution.Constitution. Nowhere inin constitutionalconstitutional documentsdocuments isis such a rightright expressed. The Bill of Rights speaksspeaks of, and thethe courts have upheld,upheld, rights inin property,property, liberty, and due process, but have beenbeen largely silentsilent about housing. Although clearlyclearly suggestive,suggestive, thisthis silence alonealone should notnot bebe takentaken as conclusiveconclusive thatthat no such right toto housing exists; for other rights,rights, alsoalso not expressed, havehave been foundfound toto be fundamentalfundamental andand are protected, including thethe right toto privacy,'privacy, 7 travel,travel,88 and counsel in criminal proceedings.99 These rightsrights have been found in thethe interstices of the Constitution. Although property and housing are largelylargely synonymous concepts, control and security of possession of a private sphere are necessary predicates for housing, but ownership per se is not. Property has long been viewed as exclusionary, with 4. See OFFICE OF POLICY DEV.DEY. & RESEARCH, U.S. DEP'T OF Hous. & URBAN DEV.,DEY., AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEEDS 2005: REPORT TO CONGRESS 4 (2007), available at http://www.huduser.orglportal/http://www.huduser.org/portall publications/affbsglwc_HsgNeeds07.htmlpublicationslaffhsg/wcHsgNeeds07.html (reporting thatthat millions of households are in need of adequate and affordable housing: "In 2005, there were only 77 units affordable and available for rent forfor every 100 very low-income renter households ..... .. For extremely low-income renter households, the ratio was worse: 40 units per 100 households, down from 43:43:100 100 in 2003"). 5. See id. at 36-37. 6. JOINTJoINT CTR. FOR Hous. STUD. OF HARYARDHARVARD UNIV.,UNIY., AMERICA'S RENTAL HOUSING: MEETING CHAL­CHAL- LENGES, BUILDING ON OPPORTUNITIES 6-7 (2011), available at http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/http://www.jchs.harvard.edulsites/ jchs.harvard.edu/files/americasrentalhousing-2011-0.pdfjchs.harvard.edulfiles/americasrentalhousing-20l LO.pdf (noting that fifteen percent, or 14.914.9 million households, in the United States considered extremely lowlow income, with a median household income of $7000 a year, spent an averageaverage of fifty-four percent of their income on housing, much higher thanthan the thirty percent believed to be optimal); see also Crowley, supra note 3, at 26. As affordable housing has shrunk due to a myriad of causes, including gentrification, conversion, demolition and abandonment, low-income households must compete with those thatthat are more well-to-do. In its 2005 report toto Congress on affordable housing needs in the nation, thethe U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported thatthat therethere were 5.995.99 million households with worst casecase housing needs, aa statisticallystatistically significantsignificant increase of 817,000817,000 households (sixteen percent) from 5.18 million in 2003. Households with "worst"worst case needs" are defined as unassisted renters with very lowlow incomesincomes who have oneone ofof two "priority"priority problems"-either householdshouseholds shouldering a "severe"severe rent burden" inin paying more thanthan half ofof their income for housing, or living inin severelyseverely substandard housing. TheseThese representrepresent five-and-a-half percent of allall American households. InIn 2011,2011, HUD reported a dramatic increaseincrease in thethe "worst case needs" group when the number ofrentersof renters in thisthis categorycategory roserose twenty percentpercent fromfrom 5.915.91 toto 7.10 million fromfrom 2007 toto 2009.2009. WhileWhile allall types of households were affected byby thethe increase,increase, familiesfamilies with children represented thethe greatestgreatest proportion,proportion, roughlyroughly thirty-ninethirty-nine percent.percent. OFFICE OF POLICYPOLICY DEY.DEV. & RESEARCH, U.S. DEP'TDEP'T OF Hous.Hous. & URBAN DEY.,DEV., WORST CASE HOUSINGHOUSING NEEDS 2009:2009: REpORTREPORT TOTo CONGRESSCONGRESS YII,VII, 1-2,3,51-2, 3, 5 (2011),(2011), availableavailable
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